Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind, And Love Is HARD!

I’ve been in my current relationship for a little over three years and it’s been great! Once God says so, we hope to get married one day. Even though I have overall enjoyed my relationship thus far, there still have been some challenges along the way. It’s through those challenges that God has spoken to my heart about love as it relates to all relationships, not just one between a man and woman, but also between a mother and daughter, or between friends, or even with Christ Himself.

God has revealed to me a number of things about love, the first thing being that love is not so much an emotion but rather an action that must be practiced, performed, and executed. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 The Biblical definition of love goes against everything that your fleshy nature naturally does. Because this definition goes against our natural instincts, it means that we must make an effort to live up to this definition. The way you love someone and each other can fluctuate according to your feelings and circumstances. It is based off of how you feel that day or how you may be treating each other. This is how love is an action to be performed. You must love the person that throws darts at your armor as much as you love the person who is rooting for you. This is hard-very hard. It will be a blow to your pride, it will go against everything that you naturally want to do. But we must make an effort to love. Christ’s love for us took Him to the cross. His love for us caused Him to endure the shame and pain. His love for us caused Him to pray for those who were killing Him. His love was not based off of how He was feeling that day, which had to have been terrible. His love was put into action to accomplish the act that saved all of us.

Regardless of how you may feel about each other in a particular moment you must make an effort to love one another with all that you have. This may feel like you are letting people walk all over you or that the other person is “winning”; but what it is actually is doing is showing your maturity in Christ. It is easy to go toe-to-toe with someone and treat them exactly how they are treating you. It takes a person closely connected to Christ to love in spite of. It will not come naturally unless you practice, perform and execute this daily.If you do not show love, everything else you do for Christ is in vain. How can you love Him who you have not seen but not love those who are molded in His image?

It is the test of your Christian walk that will never end. You may pass one test and move on to the next but the act of love is ongoing. It may have to be applied minute-by-minute, day-by-day, or year-by-year; but it will never end. There will always be someone in dire need of Christ’s love that He so freely gives to us even though we do not deserve it. Your relationships with anyone will always test your ability to actively love. But practice makes perfect.

One of the most important things that I’ve learned in my own current relationship is that being in a relationship doesn’t necessarily cause problems but it reveals them. I’ve learned so much about myself and in turn have become a better woman because of what I’ve had to face and settle within myself.